Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as computers, cellular phones, personal computing devices, and many other applications. Home, industrial, and automotive devices that in the past comprised only mechanical components now have electronic parts that require semiconductor devices, for example.
Semiconductor devices are manufactured by depositing many different types of material layers over a semiconductor substrate or wafer, and patterning the various material layers using lithography. The material layers typically comprise thin films of conductive, semiconductive, and insulating materials that are patterned and etched to form integrated circuits (IC's). There may be a plurality of transistors, memory devices, switches, conductive lines, diodes, capacitors, logic circuits, and other electronic components formed on a single die or chip.
In many semiconductor device designs, trenches are formed within a workpiece, and the trenches are filled with various types of materials, depending on the trench structures to be formed. For example, some trench structures comprise transistors or memory devices. Other trench structures comprise isolation regions that provide electrical isolation between active areas or electronic components formed on an integrated circuit. To form isolation regions, trenches are usually formed in a substrate, and the trenches are filled with insulating materials and other fill materials.
Many other types of devices and components of semiconductor devices are formed using trench structures. For example, wordlines and bitlines of many memory devices are often formed using damascene techniques, by etching trenches in an insulating material and backfilling the trenches with conductive liners and conductive fill materials such as copper.
It is important in many semiconductor device designs that same amount of insulating material, liners, or other fill materials be formed within each trench across a surface of a single die or workpiece, in order to insure adequate electrical isolation and/or performance or uniform operating parameters, for example.
Thus, what are needed in the art are improved methods of forming trench structures of semiconductor devices and structures thereof.